


Christmas Time, Christmas Island

by DrCrusher



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, OC/Canon, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-24 17:01:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21961357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrCrusher/pseuds/DrCrusher
Summary: Taking a break from his latest adventure in Viridonia, Sonic takes the time to reminisce with his newest friend about his childhood on Christmas Island… unpleasant memories included.
Kudos: 5





	Christmas Time, Christmas Island

“Still awake, eh?”

“Well, that’s insomnia for you, isn’t it?”

Sonic the Hedgehog had been enjoying his time in the island of Viridonia, despite uncovering yet another plot by the deranged madman known as Dr. Eggman. Tonight however, he was having a little rest. The winter season was approaching, and him and his friends had went to a particular foresty area by the Gleaming Meadows, where it was said to be the first place in the meadow that you could see the drop of snow.

Alas, there had not yet been a single drop. They had waited for a fair while, but still nothing. By this point, Tails, Amy and Cream had fallen asleep comfortably after having waited for so long, but Sonic was still keeping a watchful eye, grateful that his surroundings were at least pleasant to look at under the night sky. Luckily for him, he wasn’t alone on that, for the newest friend he had made, Lutrudis, was doing the same thing.

“Not tired yourself either?” the horse inquired.

“Nah,” the hedgehog replied, as he remained comfortable resting by the biggest tree in the meadow. Having finished carefully pulling a blanket over their other three friends (evidently, she predicted not all of them would be staying awake through this event), Lutrudis sat down beside Sonic and followed suit, though she did so very carefully so as not to flare up her fragile body.

“How often do you get snow in winter?” Sonic asked.

“Goes either way, really,” Lutrudis shrugged, as she very mildly crossed her legs. She chuckled. “Either there’s too much, or there’s barely much. And half the time it comes a month later. I could quite possibly count all the White Christmases I’ve experienced with my two hands… Everyone tends to just hang out in Sapphire Tundra for the festivities, since there’s always plenty of snow there regardless.”

Sonic smirked at her. “And how do you feel about snow personally?”

“It can be a bit inconvenient at times, but it’s pleasant to look at.” She brushed a gloved hand through her silky smooth ponytail, which was interrupted by a light cough. “Makes the asthma a right pain, though.”

“Aww, if I had known about that, we could have stayed in your castle.”

“It’s fine,” Lutrudis smiled as she continued looking up at the starry clouds. “You guys wanted to see this, so that’s the top priority. Just hope it actually happens at some point…”

“Heh.”

They both took in the environment for a moment. The swift breeze was the only prominent sound throughout the meadow, outside of their friends’ light snoring. Amazingly, Cheese the Chao snored the heaviest. Eventually, Lutrudis broke the silence.

“Sonic?”

“Yeah?”

“Talking of Christmas… you used to live on Christmas _Island_ , right?”

“Yeah.”

“If it’s not too nosy of me to ask… what was it like there?”

Sonic blinked. It had been so long since the last time the memory of Christmas Island had even occurred to him. He honestly couldn’t recall the last time he had discussed the subject. But he saw no reason to be secretive. Tails knew about his past history, as did Amy. What harm would revealing it to Lutrudis do?

“Well, it was pretty boring to be honest,” he laughed. “I mean, it was nice and all, and the coconuts there were _delicious._ But I was thirsty for journey even when I was a little guy, and it was never going to appease me. You can only run around the same place so many times before you lose interest, know what I mean?”

“I suppose…” In reality, Lutrudis didn’t necessarily agree, since she had always loved her frequent walks through the same forest surrounding her castle. But she understood her friend’s needs and desires, and she wasn’t going to shoot them down.

“I remember my mom and dad were always lecturing me,” Sonic reminisced wistfully. “Always telling me to stay nearby, look both ways, do this, don’t do that, be home at six, don’t break the sound barrier again…” He chuckled once more. “They were good parents though. I respected them. Just kinda overprotective of me, that’s all.”

Lutrudis fiddled with her ponytail again. “I guess they got an awful fright when you started risking your life on a routine basis, huh?”

“Heh, you could say that,” Sonic grinned sheepishly. “Especially with how young I was.”

“You were fighting nasty fiends that early on?”

“Sure was! It wasn’t just my need for adventure that kicked in early.” He broke out a confident smile. “So did my need to stick it to ‘em. Ain’t letting jerks messing with my friends, or my planet.”

Lutrudis’ own smile grew more intimate, as she glanced to her side at the heroic hedgehog, with one hand on her chest, and the other resting her head. His altruistic heart was one of his greatest qualities in her eyes, and it contributed heavily to her admiration for him, even before she had met him in person.

“So then, what manner of _dastardly rapscallions_ did you kick up the rear back in the day?” she asked in a playful tone.

“Oh, nothing extraordinary for the most part, just a bunch of petty crooks. They never prepared themselves for the good ol’ Sonic Spin.” He mimiced his signature attack by spinning his index finger. “Although there was one exception… There was this one time where I was menaced by a goblin.”

A brief silence ensued before Lutrudis fully realised what Sonic had just said. She looked at him in mild bafflement.

“A goblin?”

“Yep. A goblin.” Even years later, Sonic himself couldn’t quite believe it either. “He was a big lug too, about the size of a building. Clawed hands, bald head, fangs, pointy nose…” He shivered for a bit. “He was kinda freaky. His name was Baron Giga.”

“Baron Giga…” The lady horse had to stifle her laughter upon hearing such a ridiculous name. “Talk about naming yourself after your most obvious attribute.”

The hero laughed nervously, clearly aware about the irony of her joking with a quick-footed hedgehog named Sonic. He quickly changed course.

“Well anyway, this guy was all big and mighty, and he was all…” He puffed his chest in preparation for his subsequent impression. _“Foolish mortals! I’m the great goblin king! And your precious island is now mine! Muhahahahaha!”_

He turned his head in Lutrudis’ direction. “He had a really stupid voice by the way. Like it wasn’t actually _his_ voice, if you know what I mean.”

“I see,” Lutrudis commented, still lightly amused by his impression. Her hand was brushing gently against the petals of a daisy. “Did he have any ghastly minions?”

“You bet he did! He had walking cannons, and walking _hands!_ ”

“Ooooooh…!”

“And there were freakish hands with wings, and big googly eyes!”

“Spooky…”

“And there was this one that looked…” Sonic paused, as he attempted to find a suitable comparison for a creature with a long blunt object on its head. He was visibly embarrassed by what came to mind. “…Well, I don’t know how to describe it. It was a weird looking one.”

“So what happened?”

“Hm?”

“How did you stop him? Did you do it on your own?”

Sonic was ready to answer, but as a certain realisation kicked in, a gradual look of reluctance began to shape itself onto the hedgehog’s face. Whatever the next part of the tale was, he clearly did not want to remember it. He hesitated briefly, before finally continuing.

“Well, not exactly…”

\------

_“Are you the local hero, Sonic the Hedgehog?”_

_“Yeah! That’s me!”_

_“Thank goodness! Pleased to meet you. I’m afraid I’m in need of a bit of help…”_

_“Where are we going?”_

_“Oh, you’ll see in just a second.”_

_The young Sonic was taken aside by an older man. He couldn’t guess how old the man was, but he appeared to be somewhere in his later years at the very least. The man did not seem at all bothered by the heat the scorching sun was passing down onto his hairless cranium. Not that Sonic focused too hard on that part, for he was more hypnotised by the man’s extremely bushy moustache, as well as his deep pink nose. What on earth could cause a nose to turn so pink…?_

_“So like, are you a scientist or somethin’?” The little hog took notice of the humble little laboratory he was escorted into. Machine parts were scattered all across a bunch of tables and desks, some of them vaguely resembling insect appendages for some strange reason. There was also the occasional beaker on the desks, each of them filled with brightly colored liquids. Who knows what they could be for…?_

_“That’s right, kid,” the man stroked his brown 'stache as he examined his own private domain. “They don’t call me **Doctor** Ivo Robotnik for nothing. I earned my PhDs, I’ll have you know!”_

_“P h what…?”_

_“Well, anyway,” Robotnik started, seemingly trying not to notice his acquaintance’s lack of awareness regarding his profession. “I don’t come from here, but I’m aware of this island’s plight with Baron Giga, and I wanted to do what I could to help. Just as well then that I’ve been researching entities like the baron for the last few years now, as I find them deeply fascinating… Which means I know how to confront this menace efficiently.”_

_The scientist went up to a suspicious curtain in the corner of his lab, and removed it as dramatically as he could. To the kid’s amazement, behind the curtain was a huge machine of some sort. It looked very much incomplete, and it didn’t even boast a single coat of paint, but the basic foundation was very much present. Its appearance was highly reminiscent of a humanoid, and upon squinting, Sonic could make out a similar moustached shape near the head._

_“That looks cool!” Sonic exclaimed in literal childlike ecstasy. His spines had spiked out as an impulsive extension of his excitement. “You gonna use this junk to beat up the goblin guy?”_

_“That is the purpose of this **machine** , yes,” Robotnik confirmed matter of factly. He followed it up with a depressed sigh. “Or at least, if I had more rings…”_

_“Rings…?”_

_Robotnik promptly took out a map of blueprints and shared it with Sonic. The hedgehog could make out from the highly detailed schematics that the machine was making use of the rings he had seen throughout the island, or to be more specific, the mysterious energy that they often came with._

_“My mech requires a particularly powerful source of fuel in order to function to its best ability,” Robotnik explained, all the while trying to make sure the little hedgehog’s focus actually remained on the blueprints and not elsewhere. “Therefore, I’ve been collecting rings for that purpose. But the amount I have as of now is hardly enough…”_

_He sprinted to the giant computer in his lab, surprisingly so for someone his age, and using his impressively fast typing prowess, he got the computer to confirm exactly how charged up his mech was. As of current, it reached up to a pitiable 20%. The doctor’s moustache drooped as he sighed once again, as if on purpose._

_“That baron has been stealing all the rings for himself,” he muttered while gesticulating with one hand. “Probably for some silly witchcraft nonsense, you know these types.” He chuckled sadly, like a warm-hearted grandfather. “But that’s why I need your help.”_

_“Me?” Sonic didn’t even know this person. How was this scientist so sure about him?_

_“Only you can collect enough rings before it’s too late.” Robotnik then proceeded to cough and splutter as though he were ill, though if it hadn’t been for Sonic’s idealistic youthfulness, he may have sensed it wasn’t a genuine cough. “I’m just an old man, after all. My best days are long behind me, and I only want to help make the world a better place while I still can…”_

_“Well, don’t worry!” the kid grinned and waved a finger out of cockiness. “I’ll help you get those rings, Eggman!”_

_“…Eggman…?”_

_“Yeah, that’s my name for ya.” Sonic gave the doctor a wink. “Cause you’re kinda shaped like an egg and all… so I’m gonna call you Eggman!”_

_“…I see.” Robotnik didn’t show much reaction to the new nickname he was suddenly given, though his body language subtly emphasized that he wasn’t too keen on it. “Right, well then, I guess you better get started on your little adventure.”_

_“Alright! But uh, where should I go?”_

_“Anywhere, really. No doubt the baron’s demons will be scattered all around the island. If you find THEM, you’ll find their rings.” The doctor walked back to his mech, having brought out a wrench and several additional tools to continue working on his homemade creation. “You collect the rings, I complete the mech. You scratch my back, I scratch yours. A team effort, if you will!”_

_Sonic began revving up already. “No worries, I’ll have them all in a flash!” He flashed another grin to Robotnik, along with a good-natured thumbs up. “Catch ya later, Eggman!”_   
_And with that, he was gone in an flash. Unfortunately, the scale of his speed had caused all sorts of blueprints to be knocked over all around the lab, much to the doctor’s grumbling exasperation._

\------

“So you were working with Eggman?” Lutrudis asked, with a hint of surprise.

“Essentially, yeah.” Sonic scratched his ear before continuing. “We teamed up to beat Giga and his… 'demons’. He seemed pretty cool at the time. A bit eccentric, cause it was still Eggman, but y'know.”

“Well, that’s certainly fascinating,” the horse noted, as she gently stroked one of her legs with her other. “To think he was a decent man at first, that he once had noble intentions, and wasn’t always so selfish and cruel… Goodness, I can’t even imagine living in a reality where he _wasn’t_ a ripe stinker. Must have been something alright.”

As soon as she said that however, she was quick to notice the growing look of hurt on Sonic’s face. As she examined his uncharacteristically quiet discomfort, she gradually figured out that she had spoke too soon. Her own ears mildly drooped in disappontment at what her friend’s body language spelled out to her.

“Oh… he was… he was a stinker the whole time, wasn’t he…”

Sonic simply looked aside dejectedly, as he recalled that one moment…

\------

_“I got the last rings, Eggman! The hand monster gave me a hard time, but I snatched them off from hi-”_

_Sonic cut himself off in shock at what he witnessed upon arriving back at the lab. Robotnik was there as expected, as was his big mech… but so were rows upon rows of smaller droids, each of them based on a variety of members of the animal kingdom. He had also just interrupted the process of Robotnik working on something… something that looked an awful lot like Baron Giga. The doctor was visibly flushed upon Sonic’s arrival._

_“Ah… Sonic… you finished up earlier than expected…”_

_“What’s… what’s all this, doc?”_

_Robotnik stumbled for a little bit. “I was just, uh… just finishing a side project of mine! Wanted to do even more to fight the good fight, you know?”_

_“Doc… what is this?” Sonic asked again, this time more firmly. “Why is Giga here? Why are you doing stuff on him? And is this… an army…? You never mentioned anything about making an army…”_

_Robotnik stroked his moustache to bide some brief time as he thought out his response. “It’s all to fight Baron Giga with, see? There’s a strength in numbers, you understand. As for this… erm…” He motioned towards what appeared to be the very Giga himself. “…A lifelike replication. For locating weaknesses and whatnot. Yes, that’s right…” He quickly rubbed his hands. "Now then, the final rings, please…”_

_He extended a hand, but was instead greeted with Sonic hesitating, even hiding them away from the doctor’s view. The young hedgehog looked troubled, and alert. He didn’t like the feel of any of this._

_“What’s going on, Eggman…?” He looked up at the other, desperately wanting an answer._

_Robotnik looked down at Sonic for a few seconds, unable to say anything at first. But then, he slowly kneeled down to match Sonic’s point of view, and just as methodically, he took off his glasses for the hedgehog’s sake. Sonic was greeted with a pair of regular blue eyes, as the scientist pleaded for forgiveness._

_“Sonic… I’m sorry,” he started, as he put a hand on the other’s shoulder. “Baron Giga doesn’t exist. I created him. I should have been more honest with you, but I didn’t want you to have even more on your plate than what was necessary.”_

_“But… I don’t understand…”_

_“It was a test, you see. A test to show that you truly were the hero people said you were, and to make us more prepared for when something like Giga happens for real. The world is a dangerous place, and there’s a lot of threats out there. We have to do what we can to protect our world from them.”_

_Sonic remained silent. It didn’t make sense to him, and he still felt hurt about being lied to._

_“I understand why you may not trust me,” Robotnik muttered quietly. He briefly looked aside at the floor, as if to accentuate his apparent remorse. “But do you not recognise our potential? This situation may have been staged, but our efforts were not. We can do great things together, Sonic… extraordinary things. We can be heroes together… But I need those rings if that is ever to happen.”_

_Sonic hesitated still. He kept glancing slowly between the old man’s face, and the rings he currently held in his own hand. Robotnik ushered him once._

_“Do the right thing, Sonic… I know you can…”_

_Unable to dither for any longer, Sonic closed his eyes tightly as he gave Robotnik his last bundle of rings. Robotnik gently patted him on the head for his assistance._   
_“Thank you,” Robotnik whispered. He quickly put his glasses back on, obscuring his eyes once more. “You’ve helped me change the world for the better.”_

_After taking some time to accept his decision, Sonic slowly started to relax as the doctor applied the energy of the rings to his towering mech, before climbing inside it himself._   
_After a few seconds of inactivity, Robotnik’s masterpiece slowly came to life, like a robotic Frankenstein’s monster. By the doctor’s piloted command, it broke free from the tubes that had formerly kept it wired up, and a small number of lumbering steps each caused a slight tremor throughout the lab. Sonic looked up at the doctor’s cockpit, gradually regaining his previous excitement and enthusiasm about the project. As the mech walked all the way across the room, just outside the laboratory’s exit, it turned towards Sonic’s direction, and its mechanical hand gave a proud thumbs up to the kid. Sonic grinned, and gave a thumbs up himself._

_“So doc, what’s the first threat that needs taken care of?” he asked jovially._

_He could only barely see the doctor’s face in the cockpit, but he could hear a bit of laughter from him… It didn’t sound at all like an ordinary laugh… And the thumb of the mech was rotating slowly, yet surely, until it was upside down, pointed firmly at the floor…_

_“Ho ho ho… **you.** ”_

_“What…?”_

_As if by instinct, every last one of the smaller robots had immediately come to life. Some of them revved up their wheels, while others flapped their wings, but all of them focused solely on the blue hedgehog, and before he could realise what was happening, before he could respond with anything other than confusion, before he could seek for an explanation…_

_“Thanks for everything, kid.”_

_And right on cue, the robots began to attack and overwhelm the poor boy, while Robotnik - Eggman, as christened by the one he was now leaving for dead - left the scene in his mech._

\------

“That fiend…” Lutrudis muttered in disbelief with clenched fists. “That dirty, rotten, filthy, stinking fiend… And while you were a _child_ , no less… I’m so sorry…”

“Don’t sweat it,” Sonic shrugged casually. “It worked out in the end. I wrecked up those robots, and I caught up to him and beat him. It wasn’t easy though…”

“If Eggman wanted the rings,” Lutrudis mused as she scratched the back of her ear. “Why did he even bother with the whole Giga smoke and mirrors? He was going to get the rings with or without your help, surely?”

“It wasn’t about the rings,” Sonic explained stoically. His arms were now crossed. “It was about keeping me distracted. He knew I could have been a threat to his operations, so he did all that to get me out of the way without me even suspecting he was up to something. By painting another target.”

“Well… you got him in the end,” Lutrudis put her hand on Sonic’s shoulder, and rubbed it tenderly. “You set things right. Like every time after.”

As Sonic recalled his first proper fight with the mad scientist, he was bothered not so much by the fight itself - though being forced to fight who he thought was a friend was certainly hard to swallow - but rather, all the things the doctor called out to him as they traded blows:

_“Is it Eggman that you want? Then it’s Eggman that you’ll get!”_

_“Who am I to dismiss a name for your **king?** ”_

_“You could have avoided all this if you were more like me, and just **thought!** ”_

_“They only care about the hero! The **legend!** They don’t care about **YOU!** ”_

_“They’ll turn against you one day! They always do! Take it from me, kid! No one likes what isn’t **normal!** I was shunned for my genius, and so will you for your speed!”_

_“Where are your friends now, Sonic? Oh, that’s right, **they don’t exist!** ”_

Sonic looked up at the night sky as he remembered those biting words… before glancing at Tails, Amy and Cream, who still remained asleep even now. He then glanced at Lutrudis, who in turn caught his vision. His smile slowly began to return.

“So.. what did you do after that?” the horse queried.

“Well, I cleaned the place up, made sure everyone was okay, got yelled at by my parents for trusting a stranger… then I left.”

“You just… left?”

“Yep. The ol’ adventure thirst was calling, and after what happened with Eggman… I felt uncomfortable there. Couldn’t shake it off me.”

“How did you leave?”

“I…” Sonic hesitated, knowing what he was about to say was going to sound rather inexcusable no matter how he put it. “I erm… I stole my dad’s plane.”

Lutrudis blinked. She took a few seconds to contemplate, then blinked again.

“Right.”

“Yeah, I know…” Sonic scratched his left quill, ashamed at what he just admitted to.

Another brief period of quietness followed. The night remained as beautiful as when they had arrived, and the stars continued to glow radiantly. Upon breaking the silence this time around however, Lutrudis’ tone grew more lighthearted.

“You ever gonna give it back to him then?” She let out a joking smirk.

“Ah, heh heh, I think too much time has passed for that…” Sonic’s face grew even redder as they continued discussing his rather delinquent theft. “Tails has modified it to infinity by this point anyway… I really should talk to them again though.”

Lutrudis looked once more in the direction of the sleeping Tails. Though you couldn’t tell at first glance due to the sheet, the bumps in the sheet made it obvious that his titular twin tails were keeping the similarly dozing Amy and Cream warm. Lutrudis’ heart couldn’t help but melt ever so slightly.

“You’ve got good friends,” she commented, as she looked in Sonic’s direction. “Who cares about Eggman, when you have them.”

“Sounds about right,” Sonic agreed with a satisfied nod. He wagged his finger with a wink and a smirk. “But don’t leave yourself out, Trudy. You’re pretty cool as well.”

Lutrudis tried to fight back the bashfulness she felt in response, to blatantly little success. She rubbed her arm and glanced down at the flowers around them, before looking back up at Sonic’s famous emerald eyes.

“You too, Sonic,” she assured him quietly. She didn’t seem to be aware that her tail was swishing to and fro, just a little bit.

“Oh, wait…! Is that… … …yeah, it is! The snow’s came!”

“It has?”

Sonic and Lutrudis both stood up, and sure enough, the first few drops of snow were gently falling. Sonic quickly, yet carefully, attempted to wake his other friends. Controlling his own glee, he waited for them to reach a reasonable level of semi-consciousness before continuing.

“Guys, wake up! The snow came!”

“Whuzzat…?”

“Oh, yes! At last!”

“Snow? Yay!!!”

“Chao!!!”

Wasting no time, Cream and Cheese used their ears and wings respectively to fly closer to the new snowfall, followed shortly by Tails. The snowflakes glistened marvellously, and the celestial skies complimented their pristine elegance. Amy looked at her flying comrades with a hearty laugh, as she waited for Tails to hover down and pick her up so that she could get a closer look as well.

Sonic simply stood there, with his hands firmly on his hips. He smiled at the sight of his friends enjoying themselves. He turned to Lutrudis, who stood beside him.  
“Well, I guess we could be in for a ~White Christmas~ after all.”

“Quite so… Wait a minute, don’t tell me you’re about to-”

_“~Iiiii’m… dreeeeamiiiing~”_ Sonic started, as he shamelessly showed off his impressive vocals. He followed this up with a slow, yet goofy dance. His grin was wide, knowing full well that he was indulging in silliness. _“~Of a Whiiiite… Christmaaasss~”_

“Oh, jeez,” Lutrudis laughed out loud, as she shyly covered her face with one hand. One thing would always remain certain: this was Sonic the Hedgehog alright.


End file.
